Surviving The Assault on Private Sector Careers in America

Bad Job Market Ground Zero: The Class of 2009

Graduates this year face a faltering economy and an extremely tough job market. Less than 20 percent of those who applied for a job have one at the time of graduation. By comparison, 51 percent were employed by the time they graduated two years ago.

Commencement speakers across the country alluded to the uncertain times, but encouraged the graduates to prevail.

Is this you?

“The times that you are graduating in are, yes, perhaps more difficult and somewhat more daunting,” Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at New York University. “But that’s when we really rise together.”

Author David McCullough said to graduates at the University of Utah:

“You who are part of this over-ripe, shadowed, uncertain time which has understandably given rise to so many grave forebodings about the future.”

So reported ABC news in a recent story about the bleak job prospects for the class of 2009 and the words commencement speakers were using to motivate all of the young minds that were about to enter a maelstrom that they never would have anticipated four years earlier.

Thinking about all of young souls who now find themselves staring into this abyss, we brought a couple of Gen Y career experts into The Career Mechanic show this week and picked their brains about job search strategies for the class of 2009.

Here are my takeaways:

Get Real: Create an ABC game plan for your job search that includes a “Plan A” for the job you always hoped to land after graduation; but now realize may be temporarily out of reach. Then have a “Plan B” for jobs that while less than ideal, at least will enable you to exercise your education and stay in the game until your Plan A opportunity opens up. And then have a Plan C in case you can’t find any Plan A or B jobs. Plan C should be a job you can live with – that has nothing to do with your career plan. Think Starbucks or Jamba Juice for 6 months to a year just to earn money.

Stay in the Game: Just because you end up with a Plan B or worse, Plan C job, “don’t stop believing” that you will one day land your Plan A job. If you can afford it, take a postgraduate internship that might line up a Plan A job offer in 3-4 months. You can also continue to study your field and write about findings in a professional blog. Imagine looking for a Plan A job in 6 months and being able to promote your blog that is rich with 20 or 30 posts your wrote on the subject matter at hand.

Link Up (as in Linkedin): You never would have gone to college without a strong Facebook page and the same is now true for Linkedin. This is where real companies and recruiters look to find and qualify job applicants. Set up a page and make it as rich and professional as possible.

Clean Your Face(book): Now is the time to go into your Facebook account and clean it up. Every recruiter I’ve talked to in the last year has told me that part of their hiring process involves a thorough review a candidates Facebook presence; primarily looking for dirt. What kind of dirt? I have heard about job offers being withdrawn due to the mere appearance of heavy partying, drug or alcohol abuse, partial nudity, and extreme political positions.

Scramble, Scramble, Scramble: I know you’ve been told that the right degree from a good school with a strong internship resume will get you a job after graduation – DO NOT BELIEVE IT! There are not enough jobs out there for everyone. It will be like a game of musical chairs and if you want win the game, you need to do everything in your power to increase the number of potential chairs your can go for when the music stops. I’m talking about networking like a mad man (or woman). Your parents, their friends, aunts, uncles, neighbors, teachers, alumni, sport coaches, the freaking mail man – everyone. You must make sure that you know about every single job opportunity that might be out there.

Our guests also introduced two great web sites with tons of free information for graduating seniors looking for a job.

cbcampus.com is careerbuilder.com’s mega site dedicated to helping college students with their careers. There is an immense amount of free stuff here that will literally take a week to digest.

nomoreramenonline.com is author Nicholas Aretakis’ web site. It looks like Nicholas is a pretty methodical guy and he’s created quite a few FREE planning tools on the site. Give them and try and if you like them, buy a copy of his book “No More Ramen.”

Back to that ABC story again, here are a copy of quotes that might lighten up your day:

Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. “You would never have gotten through college without these three things.”

In New Orleans, comedian-actress Ellen Degeneres told graduates at Tulane University, “To conclude my conclusion, follow your passion, stay true to yourself. Never follow someone else’s path unless you’re in the woods and you’re lost and you see a path — and then, by all means, you should follow that.”

This Week’s Career Mechanic Show — Career Ground Zero; Starting Out RightClick HERE to listen

All over America, graduates are tossing their mortar boards in the air and getting ready to embark on their careers. But what a nightmare; imagine looking for your first job in this economy. This week we’ll be looking at the things young people can do to launch their career on a winning trajectory. Dave will be joined by Nicholas Aretakis, author of the new book “No More Ramen,” and Michael Erwin of careerbuilder.com.